Sir Moses Haim Montefiore

Montefiore is born to a Sephardic Jewish family in 1784 in Tuscany, Italy, before its move to London where his family’s poverty limits his education. He enters the London Stock Exchange in 1803, serves in the Surrey Local Militia, becomes a Freemason and opens a brokerage before marrying in 1812. When his sister marries Nathan Rothschild, the two men form a business partnership, the source of his great wealth. An 1827 visit to Jerusalem converts him to Orthodox Jewry and a wide range of good works, including the Montefiore Synagogue and philanthropic efforts to help Jews at home and in the Middle East and Russia. He supports a massive loan that allows the exchequer to pay owners to release their slaves under the Abolition Act of 1833. In 1837 he is elected Sheriff of the City of London in support of the judicial branch at the Old Baily and is knighted by Queen Victoria. He becomes a baron in 1846 before dying of in 1885 at 100 years, without direct heirs.